Oilers star Connor McDavid writing his name among NHL’s greats
SEATTLE >> Is there anything Connor McDavid can’t do?
In the stunningly renovated Climate Pledge Arena, the world’s unquestioned best player put on a show, scoring one goal and adding four assists for his eighth career five-point game in a 7-2 blowout by his Edmonton Oilers over the second-year Seattle Kraken franchise on Friday night.
The performance was put into perspective in many ways once it was all over; he needed the fifth-fewest games (37) in the last 30 years to reach 70 points on the season, tied Evgeni Malkin for most five-point games among active players despite only joining the league in 2015-16 and became the first player with 140 or more points in back-to-back calendar years since Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux both accomplished it in 1988 and 1989.
While the two-time Hart Trophy winner as the league’s most valuable player leads the NHL with 32 goals, he’s also tied for the top spot in assists with 40, which may be the most impressive stat of them all for someone with his level of natural goal-scoring ability.
It was an aspect of his game that came into focus on Friday, with all four helpers he recorded being of the primary variety, an aspect of his game that, while underappreciated even despite where he sits in the statistical leaderboard, is something he takes a great deal of pride in.
“I certainly like making plays and setting guys up,” he said. “But, I think it’s something I’ve learned throughout my career is you’ve got to be a little bit selfish. With the goal there, I probably could have slid it over high, but I take the shot myself. There’s times to set your guys up, and there’s times you need to call your own number, and I’m definitely learning that.”
McDavid is the rare player who was billed as a generational talent who lived up to the hype and then some, producing at a nearly point-and-a-half-pergame rate over the first seven and a half seasons of his career; in 525 games, he’s already potted 271 goals and added 498 assists for 769 total points, which already has him in the top-200 all-time.
At just 25 years old, while Gretzky’s all-time points record of 2,857 will forever be untouchable, he could be on pace to challenge the all-time goals scored record, whether it be Gretzky at 894, or Alexander Ovechkin if he ultimately does go on to pass “The Great One.”
One thing he doesn’t have yet, however, is a Stanley Cup, getting as close as he has to playing for the game’s biggest prize just last year with the Oilers falling short in the Western Conference Final. But, with a talented cast around him, including a currently-injured Leon Draisaitl, Darnell Nurse, Zach Hyman, Ryan NugentHopkins
and others, there’s no telling how far they might be able to go when the games really start to matter in a few months.
“I think, especially losing Leon, (Connor) was going to want to step up, and tonight, he was our driver” Nugent-Hopkins said. “He’s definitely our leader emotionally and on the ice, so I thought we followed his lead and rallied behind him.”
RANGERS PROSPECT BOYKO SHINES IN SEATTLE
Taken in the fourth round of the 2021 NHL Draft by the New York Rangers, it’s been tough sledding thus far this season for Talyn Boyko.
Currently in juniors with the Western Hockey League’s Kelowna Rockets, the 20-yearold, who signed his entry-level contract with the Rangers earlier this year, had posted just an .888 save percentage in his first 17 games before Saturday night’s game at the Accesso ShoWare Center in Kent, Washington.
And while Kelowna was shut out, 2-0, by the now 27-4-1-1 Seattle Thunderbirds — a team that features Jarome Iginla’s 16-year-old son, Tij — Boyko was dazzling at times, earning third star honors after stopping 33 of 35 shots.
Boyko could join a very crowded Rangers organizational goaltending depth chart as early as the end of this season, where he’d slot in at either AHL Hartford or ECHL Jacksonville.